View Full Version : Sort of Serious thread!
Chaco Taco
12-20-2006, 17:20
What if "life changing" situations presented themselves rather quickly for me to start planning my thru. Should I just freakin do it next season (April/ May).???? Serious question!:-?
How can anyone possibly advise you on that??? You gotta do what you gotta do. And only you can make that call.
Johnny Swank
12-20-2006, 17:25
I'd say it depends. If you have the resources available to make it through the hike and afterward, then go ahead. Too many people (including myself) plan WAY too much for a thru-hike. As long as you have some hiking under your belt and have the maps and databook, you're fine.
Chaco Taco
12-20-2006, 17:28
I know its my choice. Im just in a spot and am looking to see if anyone has ever been inmy spot. I will have resources available. Its just the thinga bout after the hike that has me stumped. I will be thru hiking during a transitionary period.
Hammock Hanger
12-20-2006, 17:36
There was a lady out there in 2001 called "3 days", that is because she heard about the AT and decided to do it and was out there 3 days later. If you have the want, the opportunity and resources just go.
WAY TOO MANY HIKES ARE OVERPLANNED.
Lone Wolf
12-20-2006, 17:49
I know its my choice. Im just in a spot and am looking to see if anyone has ever been inmy spot. I will have resources available. Its just the thinga bout after the hike that has me stumped. I will be thru hiking during a transitionary period.
What exactly is your "spot".
His girlfriend's pregnant?
Lowspark. Remember. One is ALWAYS in some spot or 'nuther. One is ALWAYS in transition. Make up your mind it will turn out fine and it will turn out well whatever you decide.
If she really loves you, she'll wait.
Desert Lobster
12-20-2006, 18:23
Lowspark, you might want to enlighten folks so they can give you some advice.
copythat
12-20-2006, 18:24
If she really loves you, she'll wait.
if she really REALLY loves him, he'll be buying her a granite gear pack for the hike.
Lion King
12-20-2006, 18:27
If she really loves you, she'll wait.
Or not.
No one ever will be what you think they are and long distance hiking will show you exactly what you mean or dont mean to someone you love.
Ive lsot a couple of women because of my addiction to hiking, and I never seem to find one I am attracted and she to me that loves hiking.
The hiker chicks I dig are all taken, I think...
Lowspark,
Your thread topic - “Sort of Serious thread!” - seems uncertain that you have posed, in fact, a “Serious question!”
You haven’t provided much of a clue about what you consider to be " ‘life changing’ situations.”
Even if you describe fully and exactly the situations which seem “life changing” to you, someone, anyone, everyone else may not appreciate the importance your situations present you.
The Appalachian Trail existed before you were born. Probably it will still be there after you’re dead. Hike it sometime in your life between those two events.
Chaco Taco
12-20-2006, 18:59
Ok, I have been under the impression that I was gonna flunk outta school for a couple of weeks. My gf is gonna leave me, Im pretty sure when she finds out. Im thinking "if" it happens of moving in witha buddy. If she doesnt leave me, Ill try and get back in by summers end. Im trying to cover my bases. She is not keen on my love of hiking. She always jokes when I move my pack that Im packin up and leavin. My situation is that I am at a crossroads. I have an ok job that would allow me to save and start in April/May. Thats my situation.
Simple. You have a decision to make. That's part of growing up.
She is not keen on my love of hiking.
Don't waste another minute of your life. Get out now. Plenty of other chicas out there. Hit the trail.
Chaco Taco
12-20-2006, 19:28
I may be able to salvage next semester. Part of me just wants to work all winter and head out. I am pretty sure my job would let me come back. A buddy of mine did it. Anyway, thanks. Just wanted a hikers perspective!:)
Ok, I have been under the impression that I was gonna flunk outta school for a couple of weeks. My gf is gonna leave me, Im pretty sure when she finds out. Im thinking "if" it happens of moving in witha buddy. If she doesnt leave me, Ill try and get back in by summers end. Im trying to cover my bases. She is not keen on my love of hiking. She always jokes when I move my pack that Im packin up and leavin. My situation is that I am at a crossroads. I have an ok job that would allow me to save and start in April/May. Thats my situation.
My sister managed to talk to university administrators and they allowed her a probationary semester (not to be jaded, but they love the tuition dollars and have an interest in keeping people in school, not kicking them out.) If you want to stay and just had a bad semester for whatever reason, don't just give up and walk away. However, if you did poorly 'cause you weren't really into it because you know you don't really want to be there, well, go ahead and transition to something/someplace where you feel right.
And - Why would your girlfriend leave you when she finds out?
Chaco Taco
12-20-2006, 22:44
Im just weighing my options. Trying to pan out my "what ifs".
Or not.
No one ever will be what you think they are and long distance hiking will show you exactly what you mean or dont mean to someone you love.
Ive lost a couple of women because of my addiction to hiking, and I never seem to find one I am attracted and she to me that loves hiking.
The hiker chicks I dig are all taken, I think...
Women...can't live with em... etc. etc.
Amigi'sLastStand
12-21-2006, 07:35
I know its my choice. Im just in a spot and am looking to see if anyone has ever been inmy spot. I will have resources available. Its just the thinga bout after the hike that has me stumped. I will be thru hiking during a transitionary period.
I just went through something similar. If you arent hiking just to hike, dont hike. My very humble opinion.
Gotta sit in a quiet room and have a conversation with your soul to see where youre at. The trail is brutally honest with you, you need to be the same way with yourself. Good luck.
Hammock Hanger
12-21-2006, 09:13
Women...can't live with em... etc. etc.
Can't live without em....
Chaco Taco
12-21-2006, 22:28
So I have figured out this. I am going on a section in March regardless of what happens with school. I am going to wait at least a year to do my thru. Im just going to pick a date and stay with it and use the time til then to go enjoy the special parts of the NC TN and VA mountains. I hear about so many other parts off the trail that are really amazing. Thanks for everyones input .
Can't live without em....
Can K*** em!
You better know I meant KISS!:D
Yeah, that's pretty much what makes it all worthwhile. And it is.
Brrrb Oregon
12-22-2006, 03:13
So I have figured out this. I am going on a section in March regardless of what happens with school. I am going to wait at least a year to do my thru. Im just going to pick a date and stay with it and use the time til then to go enjoy the special parts of the NC TN and VA mountains. I hear about so many other parts off the trail that are really amazing. Thanks for everyones input .
Having worked the lecture side of the hall....wait until finals are over for a week before you make any big academic plans. Otherwise, it is like deciding whether to continue your thruhike when you are, oh, 100 feet from the top of a 1500 foot elevation gain that was a bit rougher than you had sized it up to be.
I'd think twice before staying serious with somebody who isn't cool with your hiking. As an example, one of my relatives loves guns. His wife loves that stuff you get at florist conventions. She doesn't shoot, he doesn't arrange flowers, but that the other one does is part of the package, and neither one has ever said they'd like to change the other. They like boating and car camping together, though. (He owns over 20 guns, but I don't think there is a fur cover on any of their toilets. There is a line.)
In other words, don't make yourself somebody else's fixer-upper, especially if they have their sites fixed on a wing of the house that you are already fond of...
copythat
12-22-2006, 04:04
Having worked the lecture side of the hall....wait until finals are over for a week before you make any big academic plans. Otherwise, it is like deciding whether to continue your thruhike when you are, oh, 100 feet from the top of a 1500 foot elevation gain that was a bit rougher than you had sized it up to be.
I'd think twice before staying serious with somebody who isn't cool with your hiking. As an example, one of my relatives loves guns. His wife loves that stuff you get at florist conventions. She doesn't shoot, he doesn't arrange flowers, but that the other one does is part of the package, and neither one has ever said they'd like to change the other. They like boating and car camping together, though. (He owns over 20 guns, but I don't think there is a fur cover on any of their toilets. There is a line.)
In other words, don't make yourself somebody else's fixer-upper, especially if they have their sites fixed on a wing of the house that you are already fond of...
EXCELLENT advice, all around.
(where were you when i met my FIRST wife?!)
In other words, don't make yourself somebody else's fixer-upper, especially if they have their sites fixed on a wing of the house that you are already fond of...
Wow, that was poetic! Were you channeling (maybe) Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady? (Let a Woman in Your Life.)
TurkeyBacon
12-22-2006, 11:08
Some perspectives from someone who went through three schools on my first degree, got a degree worth nothing much, went back to school using my first degree to avoid all gen eds and got a better degree and am now work for a living (oh yah... I hiked the AT in betweeen).
IF you are about to flunk out of school, your head is not in the right spot. You really either have been drinking way to much or have something else going on if you are about to flunk out of school (my wife aggrees as she has finally graduated on the third attempt). If you head is not in the right spot, stop going to school. Hiking the AT is one option, it can do wonders to get your head in the right spot. Getting a second degree is much harder with financial aide than getting the first degree.
Don't worry about the female, people are getting married later in life all the time (27, 30 for me and the wife).
OR I could be completely wrong...
TB
In other words, don't make yourself somebody else's fixer-upper, especially if they have their sites fixed on a wing of the house that you are already fond of...
Wow. Perfect.
Wow. Perfect.
The tune from My Fair Lady...
She'll redecorate your home,
From the cellar to the dome.
Then go on to be enthralling
proud of overhauling... you.
("Let a Woman in your Life")